Sydney - Dead people, prisoners and 27,000 Australians
living abroad got a share of a 10-billion-Australian-dollar (7-
billion-US-dollar) stimulus package that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
said would create jobs, keep cash registers ringing and stave off
recession.
The cheques mailed to the deceased, the incarcerated and the
resident abroad amounted to 40 million Australian dollars, the
Australian Tax Office (ATO) said Thursday.
The payments to 16,000 deceased estates alone could sting
taxpayers for 14 million Australian dollars.
'It is the role of the executor in administering the proceeds of
the deceased estate to determine how the tax bonus payment will be
distributed to beneficiaries,' the ATO said in response to queries
about where the money would go.
The ATO didn't say how many prisoners had received windfalls, but
said 25 million Australian dollars had been deposited in the bank
accounts of around 25,000 expatriates.
'Around 99.5 per cent of the stimulus money went exactly where we
intended it to go,' Small Business Minister Craig Emerson said. 'Do
you sit and wait and try and get that up to 100 per cent and have no
stimulus?'
Labor Member of Parliament Janelle Saffin said that mortality was
unavoidable - as were payments to the dead.
'Yes, it's unfortunate and sad that sometimes people die, and that
money goes to their estates,' she said.
Opposition Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull identified the
grateful dead as evidence of a spendthrift government.
'It just demonstrates the absurdity of this cash-splash,' Turnbull
said. 'Just shrugging your shoulders and saying it was unavoidable
when you're wasting billions of dollars of reckless spending is not
good enough.'
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